Very busy but beautiful. I’d recommend buying your timed-entry ticket online from the national park admin site. Would also recommend the bus transfer ticket (per person) unless you don’t mind a very steep (paved) walk from the park/garden gate entry to the palace (10-15 minute walk, strenuous)

Once atop the hill you’ll have access to the palace but only as a timed entry. You will be placed in a Que based on your ticket time and cannot enter prior. Don’t miss your time either, we witnessed multiple groups and individuals turned away with expired tickets (your ticket is good for 30 minutes) which forced them to buy new tickets at the palace gate or leave without walking thru the palace.

Once inside you’ll walk in-step with a crowd from one room to another. There is almost no time or space to move about on your own as the corridors and rooms are small where you’re allowed to walk.

We paid for the app download which provides an audio guide. We were not able to use it because our cell phone service was poor to nonexistent, we were unable to download the audio portion of the guide and streaming was never going to work given the cell signal. The guide may have been useful and informational but I would recommend downloading it long ahead of time where you have reliable cell service or wifi (not available on site).

The palace is beautiful inside but the exterior is where the real sites are. There are a couple windows along the walking path indoors where you’ll catch a very brief glimpse of a fantastic view over the low lands below.

We are pleased with the experience overall. It was very busy on a Sunday, as expected for a UNESCO world heritage site and would recommend the trip from Lisbon.

The train from Lisbon was simple and can be accessed via round trip ticket or rechargeable Lisbon card. It’s the typical train without assigned seating and will almost surely be very full for your trip to Sintra. We were on a 9am train, it’s about 45 minutes voyage, arriving in the city of Sintra and walked about five minutes to a less busy area to hail an Uber ($5-7) for a ride to the palace entry gate.

Some adventurous folks set out to hike to the top but that will likely take nearly 40+ minutes and is arduous. There are are busses, taxi and tuktuk from the train station. The Uber was our choice over the rest, we waited less than 5 minutes for the driver and it was a pleasant ride.

We took an Uber down to a local restaurant, ate lunch and then shopped before taking a 14:50 train back to Rossio station. There very few on the train until the third stop, at that point it was packed with city commuters.

Tickets are available on-site at the main gate but large tourist busses drop off and huge crowds of people gather in que for park entry, there is a separate line to buy tickets but that is also busy.